by Rev. Alasdair Macleod (Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland and Minister of Smithton Church, Inverness)
It’s part of human life that we take for granted what is familiar, whether people or places. Our familiarity with the Christmas event means we can easily forget the wonder of the identity of the child in Bethlehem’s manger. Hebrews chapter 1 clarifies the majestic splendour of the babe born in the stable.
God’s Ultimate Communication Verses 1-2
To build or rebuild a relationship, one party starts communicating. Our relationship with God is solely down to his choice to communicate with us in a way we can understand. He condescended to our level, using divine baby talk, just as we do when speaking to toddlers. He communicates not only in the world he created, which bears his divine signature, but in ‘many and various ways’ verse 1. However, a turning point was reached with the arrival of Jesus. The eloquence of Christ’s character and actions speaks volumes as the ultimate communicator, incomparably clearer than all who preceded him, because he is the eternal Son.
God’s Ultimate Revelation Verse 3
Bethlehem’s babe is ‘the radiance of God’s glory’. He is, in other words, God made visible cf. Colossians 1:15, John 1:14. Jesus does not simply reflect God’s glory like the moon reflects the sun; he is part of it, radiating light! Think of a welder covering his face with a protective mask to stop his eyes from being blinded by the light caused by the welding process. To the naked eye, the lens is so dark that you cannot see through it. Such is the power of the light produced it would blind us unless filtered. Jesus is the lens through which we encounter the glory of God. His glory is not a different glory from the Father’s but the same glory in another form. As many have summarised, ‘The father is the hidden glory; the son is the glory revealed’. Verse 2 of the Christmas Carol, ‘O come all your faithful’, reflecting the Nicene Creed, sums it up well, “God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God.”
In addition, Jesus is ‘the exact representation of his being’ verse 3. Think of a machine making a perfect impression on a coin, exactly reproducing the design on the die. Jesus is the tangible, visible appearance of the invisible God (2 Corinthians 4:4,6). In Jesus, we see heaven’s eternal heart walking around on two legs in time and space[1]. Only Jesus could honestly say, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” (John 14: 9). If we want to know God, what he thinks, how he cares, then we look to Jesus – the one who is the same yesterday, today and forever’ (Hebrews 13:8).
This Christmastime, Hebrews chapter 1 reminds us no one can claim God didn’t make himself clear. Nor can anyone claim God doesn’t care. He so loved the world that he gave his only son, the infinite superior of angels and creatures, not just to be born but to become vulnerable, lower than the angels for a time, to ultimately suffer in our place. It doesn’t get costlier.
[1] Ortland, D ‘Gentle and Lowly’.